Novel pulse power supply operating at high input power factor

Abstract

Pulse power supplies (PPS) are used in several applications like food processing, plasma operation, water sterilization etc. Most of the existing topologies of PPS suffer from drawbacks such as requirement of high voltage DC power supply, series operation of switching devices and use of a pulse transformer. In this paper, an improved PPS configuration, based on the combination of an array of boost converters and an input boost rectifier stage is proposed. Not only does this topology overcomes the above mentioned limitations, but also results in high power factor at the AC mains input and allows independent control of the output pulses' amplitude and duration. Results of computer simulations and laboratory experiments are presented.